GEAC] Ministry of Environment & Forests Paryavaran Bhawan, CGO Complex Lodhi Road, New Delhi
To July 16, 2006 Shri Bir Singh Parsheera Chairperson, Genetic Engineering Approval Committee [GEAC] Ministry of Environment & Forests Paryavaran Bhawan, CGO Complex Lodhi Road, New Delhi Dear Shri Parsheera Sub: Feedback on Bt Brinjal – biosafety & beyond Sir, by now you would have received the initial feedback provided to the Minister for Environment & Forests with a copy marked to you, on June 15th 2006, on the issue of Bt Brinjal and its very need. We are annexing that response to this letter for your ready reference [Annexure 1]. We would like to first record our serious objection to multi-locational limited field trials being conducted in various locations in the open environment, in farmers’ fields without biosafety being cleared, without adequate monitoring and containment capabilities and very often, in violation of farmers’ rights. No liability has been fixed for biosafety violations pointed out earlier, giving a clear message that biosafety is not the regulators’ primary concern at all, though the GEAC has been created, constituted and allowed to function expressly for that. The following is the collective feedback from the Coalition for GM-Free India which touches upon the earlier-made points even as it includes newer feedback on the biosafety testing protocols that have been adopted in the case of Bt Brinjal and the results of the tests. 1. We repeat that there is no need for Bt Brinjal to be introduced. This is not something that farmers have demanded and almost all major farmers’ organizations of the country have already rejected the proposal of entry of Bt Brinjal even if it is in the form of field trials and seed production, whether in the public sector or in the private sector.
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